A letter from House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) demands an explanation from the Treasury Department on why it allowed $3 billion in payments to ObamaCare insurance companies that Congress never approved.

In a well-documented piece, Philip Klein gives a disturbing summary of the Obama administration deliberately refusing to follow the law.

“At issue are payments to insurers known as cost-sharing subsidies,” writes Klein. “These payments come about because President Obama’s healthcare law forces insurers to limit out-of-pocket costs for certain low income individuals by capping consumer expenses, such as deductibles and co-payments, in insurance plans. In exchange for capping these charges, insurers are supposed to receive compensation.”

"Hillary Clinton's lack of transparency is newsworthy as investigators attempt to ascertain her work around the time of the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi. Certainly the media could stay quite busy investigating how Clinton communicated with her colleagues and the White House, how secure her email communications were, whether they were hacked, who was privy to this law-breaking (or 'rule-breaking' in the parlance of the media), and assorted other questions. For instance, was it a GMail account? Did she get targeted ads based on the content of possibly top secret emails? Were classified documents sent to this email address? Did that violate any other laws? What, exactly, was she trying to hide? What Benghazi information, if any, was hidden by this workaround? How do we know?...

"The bottom line, though, is that this story couldn't be more vintage Clinton if it tried. Some people have fond memories of the Clintons but that's mostly because they've repressed all the memories of the constant idiotic scandals they dragged the country through -- all while protesting that a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy was to blame."

— Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, The Federalist Senior Editor

— Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, The Federalist Senior Editor

Posted March 03, 2015 • 12:53 pm

On PM Netanyahu's Address to Congress and the American People:

"When Netanyahu walks to the podium of the House of Representatives on March 3, he'll undoubtedly have in mind an earlier speech given by a foreign leader to a joint meeting of Congress. On December 26, 1941, Winston Churchill addressed Congress, though in the smaller Senate Chamber rather than in the House, as so many members were out of town for Christmas break.

"Churchill enjoyed the great advantage in December 1941 of having an American president who, after Pearl Harbor, was a clear and unambiguous ally in the war for the West. Netanyahu has no such advantage. So it might be hard for him to say, as Churchill did, that here in Washington he had 'found an Olympian fortitude which, far from being based upon complacency, is only the mask of an inflexible purpose and the proof of a sure, well-grounded confidence in the final outcome.'

"But Netanyahu won't be speaking only to the Obama administration, which has, after all, made clear its lack of interest in listening to Netanyahu and whose allies won't be there to listen. He'll be speaking to the American people."

— William Kristol, The Weekly Standard Editor

— William Kristol, The Weekly Standard Editor

Posted March 02, 2015 • 13:06 pm

On IRS Criminal Probe Into Lois Lerner Emails:

"The IRS's inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

'There is potential criminal activity,' Mr. Camus said."

— Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times

— Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times

Posted February 27, 2015 • 12:26 pm

On FCC Approval of So-Called 'Net Neutrality':

"The Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve so-called 'net neutrality' Thursday, but the fight over sweeping new regulation of the Internet may be just beginning.

"The vote represents the culmination of an unprecedented clash in Washington over the future of the Internet -- and the beginning of an onslaught of legal challenges to treating the technology like a public utility.

"After highly dramatic, confusing and disputed deliberations, the FCC's commissioners are expected to approve the Obama plan. The vote comes despite loud reservations expressed by some commissioners, accusations of improper White House involvement in the work of an independent agency, and uncertainty about how voluminous new regulations could affect the rapid growth and innovation of new media that many Americans have come to expect over more than two decades."

— Brian Hughes, Washington Examiner White House Correspondent

— Brian Hughes, Washington Examiner White House Correspondent

Posted February 26, 2015 • 12:49 pm

On Allegations of Sexual Solicitation by Senior State Department Official:

"A senior State Department official in charge of federal counterterrorism programs was arrested Tuesday afternoon for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor, Fox News has learned.

"Fairfax County Police officials say Daniel Rosen was arrested by a county detective about noon at his Washington, D.C. home after he allegedly sought to arrange sex with a minor. The detective, a female officer working in the county's Child Exploitation Unit, had been posing as the minor in online exchanges with Rosen, police said.

"Rosen, who is the director of counterterrorism programs and policy at the State Department, was arrested and transported to the D.C. jail and charged with one count of Use of a Communications Device to Solicit a Juvenile."

— James Rosen, Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent

— James Rosen, Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent

Posted February 25, 2015 • 13:42 pm

VA Secretary Robert McDonald Admits Lying about Special Forces Service:

"Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has admitted that he lied about serving in the special operations forces in a conversation with a homeless veteran that was caught on camera earlier this year.

"McDonald made the claim in January while he was in Los Angeles as part of the VA's effort to locate and house homeless veterans. During the tour, a homeless man told McDonald that he had served in the special operations forces.

"'Special forces? What years?' McDonald responded. 'I was in special forces.' The exchange was broadcast on 'The CBS Evening News' Jan. 30. McDonald's misstatement was first reported by The Huffington Post.

"McDonald graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1975 and completed Army Ranger training before being assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division until his retirement in 1980. According to the Huffington Post, while McDonald was formally recognized as a graduate of Ranger School, he never actually served in a Ranger battalion or other special operations unit.

"'I have no excuse,' the website quoted McDonald as saying in its report. 'I was not in special forces.'"

— FoxNews.com

— FoxNews.com

Posted February 24, 2015 • 13:24 pm

On the Beginning of 'Obamanet':

"Critics of President Obama's 'net neutrality' plan call it ObamaCare for the Internet.

"That's unfair to ObamaCare.

"Both ObamaCare and 'Obamanet' submit huge industries to complex regulations. Their supporters say the new rules had to be passed before anyone could read them. But at least ObamaCare claimed it would solve long-standing problems. Obamanet promises to fix an Internet that isn't broken.

"The permissionless Internet, which allows anyone to introduce a website, app or device without government review, ends this week. On Thursday the three Democrats among the five commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission will vote to regulate the Internet under rules written for monopoly utilities. ...

"This week Mr. Obama's bureaucrats will give him the regulated Internet he demands. Unless Congress or the courts block Obamanet, it will be the end of the Internet as we know it."

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Britain's electronic spying agency, in cooperation with the U.S. National Security Agency, hacked into the networks of a Dutch company to steal codes that allow both governments to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide, according to the documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden.

"A story about the documents posted Thursday on the website The Intercept offered no details on how the intelligence agencies employed the eavesdropping capability - providing no evidence, for example, that they misused it to spy on people who weren't valid intelligence targets. But the surreptitious operation against the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phone data chips is bound to stoke anger around the world. It fuels an impression that the NSA and its British counterpart will do whatever they deem necessary to further their surveillance prowess, even if it means stealing information from law-abiding Western companies."

— Ken Dilanian, Associated Press Intelligence Writer

— Ken Dilanian, Associated Press Intelligence Writer

Posted February 20, 2015 • 13:03 pm

On WI Governor Scott Walker and the 'Sophistication' of the Left:

"Opponents have thrown pretty much every stereotypical trope in the leftist playbook Walker's way, and to little avail. He has been attacked as a racist (for talking about the American Dream) and a sexist (for, well, being a Republican). Walker even inspired a recent loopy New York Times hit piece blaming him for spending cuts that occurred before he even took office. Walker's detractors also embrace the fact that he dropped out of Marquette University before graduating, arguing that his shortage of college credits equals a lack of the sophistication and knowledge needed to be president of the United States.

"This gets amusing, of course, when we see what passes as 'sophistication' on the left. This week, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf -- who not only has a bachelor's degree, but a master's in foreign relations -- postulated to Chris Matthews that the Islamic StateÃ¢s beheading factory stemmed from members' lack of access to good jobs. Later, she defended her comments -- which, by the way, contradict much of what we know about modern terrorism -- as being too 'nuanced' for regular people to understand. Meanwhile, this week, President Obama spent a lot of time talking about a rather vague outbreak of 'violent extremism.' His focus? 'Empowering local communities.'

Scott Walker, meanwhile, cut to the chase. 'We should call it what it is: radical Islamic terrorism.' Whatever becomes of Walker's presidential bid -- and a lot could happen in the next few months -- one thing is clear: The Wisconsin governor seems to offer a fairly trenchant foil to the modern left. 'Scott Walker knows his enemies,' Jamelle Bouie wrote this week at Slate. 'And so far, they haven't figured it out.' In the meantime, he's certainly bringing out their worst characteristics."

— Heather Wilhelm, RealClearPolitics.com

— Heather Wilhelm, RealClearPolitics.com

Posted February 19, 2015 • 12:32 pm

On the President's Executive Amnesty Pronouncement:

"Judge Hanen's stay is no guarantee the president will lose the lawsuit the states have brought against him, or even that the stay won't be lifted.

"Still, it's nice to see a judge remind this former teacher of constitutional law that when he says he issued his executive orders 'to change the law,' he's just undermined his own case."

"Hillary Clinton's lack of transparency is newsworthy as investigators attempt to ascertain her work around the time of the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi. Certainly the media could stay quite busy investigating how Clinton communicated with her colleagues and the White House, how secure her email communications were, whether they were hacked, who was privy to this law-breaking (…[more]

—Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, The Federalist Senior Editor

— Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, The Federalist Senior Editor

Liberty Poll

Do you approve or disapprove of the FCC decision to reclassify the Internet and expose it to public utlity-style federal regulations?